california_games_coverartNow, I’m just gonna start typing and see where it takes me. This is a free for all blog rant and I have no intentions of a specific topic this week.

I just stared at my computer screen for five minutes… this isn’t going to work.

I like video games, I like them alot. Not to a point where I would rather sit down on a weekend evening and play instead of being social… but a few titles out there have gotten me close to that point. I also play a lot of games, one of the perks to this job is that playing games and reading about gaming news is part of my job description! So this past week I went to my local EB games to trade in a few titles and pick up something new, I must have spent a good 45 minutes looking through the Xbox 360 used section, new section, PS3 used section, new section, Wii used section, new section, DS used, new, PSP used, new (as you can tell, I try to save some cash where I can) and after going through every one of these sections, I didn’t really see any titles I would be willing to spend the cash on!

It’s not like there are good titles out there that I wouldn’t want to try: Punchout, Street Fighter 4, Call of Juarez, Fight Night Round 4 for example. It’s just that for the most part, I know that these games just won’t keep my interest long enough to warrant a purchase, perhaps a rent, but that’s about as far as I would be willing to go. I realize this is getting dangerously close to my other rant about games not keeping my interest for long enough periods of time however, so I will move on.

I feel the video game industry is growing too large too quickly. When it gets to a point where gamers are expecting a blockbuster game title to come out every week and getting upset when there comes a week (such as this one) where the biggest title that excites you is the virtual console release on the Wii of Commodore 64’s California Games, things just have to slow down.

Don’t get me wrong, the fact that the video game industry is bigger than both the music and box office industries combined (says Cammie Dunaway in her press conference for Nintendo at E3) is fantastic for those that love making games as well as playing games. Developers and publishers gain bigger budgets and prestige for creating that amazing game, and gamers around the world get to enjoy the higher level of gaming that comes with the territory. At the same time however, the gamers, the fans themselves become in a sense, spoiled. It will get to a point that those that have a certain budget per month on buying or renting games will begin to get every ‘must have’ title out there and either only have a week to play each title, or become frustrated that they can’t get all the big names with their current budget.

Could Mario be the key to world peace?

Could Mario be the key to world peace?

It scares me to think of what will happen if the gaming industry continues to grow at such an alarming rate. In my mind there are three bad scenarios and two great scenarios of the outcome if gaming continues at this pace. First bad scenario is that the holiday season will create such a backlog of must-have games that people will only purchase games during the holiday season and at such a high level of products being purchased that they have enough games to last them until the next holiday season ignoring all the gems that are released throughout the year. The second bad scenario is that those that create short, cheap, poor quality games will flood the market with even more titles, trying to grab cash with low budget titles… which might create the need for a new tax on games. Thirdly, with the industry growing so large so quickly, I fear the foundation of the entire gaming industry might collapse on itself and the gaming bubble (much like the tech and dot com bubbles) will pop and alot of high quality developers and publishers may go under.

Now, that being said however, things could always get even better for gamers. With the high demand for games, more publishers and developers will come into the market, creating stronger competition; this strong competition will lead to higher quality titles, more original and innovative games, and perhaps even a price decrease to gain a larger consumer market share. The second positive scenario that could come from this is that everyone wins. Governments start to vie for more video game companies in their countries, new jobs are created, more original titles are coming out to stifle the influx of gaming sequels and ultimately world peace is achieved through the use of video games… I realize this last part is a little out there, but hey, a guy can dream can’t he?

Could you imagine the world’s first peace treaty signed and witnessed in World of Warcraft? Hey, it could happen sooner than you think!






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